Finding Glyph
by Prime627
Summary: The war was reaching its peak, and Orion Prime (soon to be Optimus Prime) ordered all loved ones to be shipped off-world to be quickly followed by the AllSpark, and soon themselves. Everyone sends their loved ones out into space, even Ratchet. But now the Autobots are on Earth, and Ratchet is anxious to know. Where is his son? (Inspired by Lazy Chipmunk's prompt)
1. Chapter 1

Ratchet ran. He couldn't do much else, not after his home, his MedBay, his life had been blown to bits. The only thing he had left was the crying sparkling in his arms against his chest. He tucked it into a little pod, tucked it in as gently as he could, then he stroked his cheek. The battlefield was no place for a sparkling. Glyph, the little sparkling, blinked sadly up at him, as if asking where his mother was. He whined for Ratchet, burbled a sparkling-speak response as Ratchet kissed his forehelm, then Ratchet sedated the sparkling.

"I will come and find you, my sparkling..." He touched his forehelm, sighing a shaky sigh as he drew away. Then he nodded at Orion Prime, formly Orion Pax, Seeker of the Matrix.

Orion nodded back and launched the pods, one by one that were filled with loved ones, sparklings, and mates.

And one by one, they disappeared.

One by one, they were forgotten.

Every single one of them, that is, except Glyph.

 **ooo**

 _ **(The pod landed in a field, having finally come to a rest on a little bluish-greenish orb that was relatively insignificant.)**_

 _ **(The creature inside the pod was wailing, having woken from his million-year nap and feeling rather hungry. When no one came to soothe and tend to him, he quieted and listened to the world around him.)**_

 _ **(Eventually, the little one's Amalgami coding worked at blending him into the environment, and the sounds of a dominant predator provided him the perfect disguise.)**_

 _ **("Look over here!")**_

 _ **(The creature stilled and waited for the predator to come into view long enough for him to scan and take on its physical appearance, perhaps even alter it to appear less dangerous. It was really hungry and in need of care.)**_

 _ **(The pod was opened and little Glyph only needed a moment to take on the physical appearance of a baby.)**_

 _ **("Awwwww," the woman cooed as she lifted the baby out of the pod. "He's left all alone!")**_

 _ **(Glyph was safely tucked into her arms, the strange pod forgotten for now upon finding the baby. Though she was a nice substitute for his parents, Glyph whined up at the sky and wondered where his sire was. Though he was young, he remembered vividly what his sire looked like, what his abilities were, how he was to survive. It was all hard-wired into his body, the way sparklings had become to survive the cold hard war.)**_

 _ **(The only thing that was fading from memory was his carrier. Steadily, her face was replaced by the organic one smiling down at him now.)**_

 _ **("Hello, Rafael," she whispered.)**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Twelve years later...**_

Ratchet sat in his quarters. He had fled into the room as soon as he heard that humans were coming to the base. He snorted again in disbelief, then looked down at his servos. Not for the first time, he thought of Glyph. He would be Bumblebee's size now, he thought sadly, and he hugged himself tightly as if he might fall apart if he didn't.

Optimus opened the door to his quarters, the only mech in existance with the ability to do so without getting yelled at or the target of a flying object. "Ratchet," Optimus started gently. He didn't flinch when Ratchet fixed an icy glare on him. "The humans will be here soon."

"Excellent. I'll be right here." He wanted that to be the last thing he said, but Optimus pressured him.

"Ratchet, you cannot sit and mourn your so-"

Ratchet whirled on him. "What do you know? You didn't send anyone into space!"

Optimus stared at him. "I did not send anyone out because I had no one to send."

"That's right. You _have_ no family. Now stop pressuring me to forget mine."

That time Optimus flinched. For a moment, Ratchet regretted his words. But not for long.

Optimus dared to speak again. "I only wish for you to come out and see the humans. I think you will find them very interesting."

Ratchet rolled his optics. "Sure, Optimus...sure."

But he couldn't help himself. Optimus was often impressed with everything on the Earth, but he kept those thoughts to himself. Only when he said something was impressive did Ratchet look at him and trust him.

So he went out of his quarters and padded to the computer, typing in a command just as the humans were escorted in the base. When he looked down, his optics were drawn to one being in particular.

He was a small human, but he was strong emotionally and he was in fact impressive. He came equiped with optic-protectors, or "glasses". Ratchet looked into the human's eyes and he nearly faltered. A flash of blue clouded over his brown eyes for a moment. Humans, as far as he knew, could not spontaneously change their eye color at will.

The little human smiled and Ratchet felt drawn to the human, wanting to hold him like he had held Glyph, and part of him saw the little one as his sparkling.

But his hopes were crushed.

"Hi," the human said. "I'm Raf."

Ratchet grumbled and turned away. He closed his optics and forced the tears to return to their hiding place. He wondered if he would ever see his Glyph again.

The blue in Raf's eyes returned, as well as sadness, but it was quickly replaced with awe at the sight of Bumblebee, who chittered and chattered a greeting.

"Nice to meet you, too!"

The Cybertronians were stunned. Even Ratchet had to take a moment to recollect himself.

Bumblebee led Raf to the catwalk and Ratchet watched them for a moment before he slowly turned back to the computer.

He searched for any strange findings of "alien robots" on Earth.

Nothing came up.

Meanwhile, Raf's giggles and squeals were getting louder and Ratchet wanted to leave the room, but something held him there, something about how Raf responded to Bumblebee.

But Ratchet dismissed it as soon as the thought came to him.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Rest in Peace, Optimus...**_

Ratchet was in no mood. He had said goodbye to his closest friend, and now he wanted to lay in his berth. He wished that nothing would happen.

But then a SpaceBridge opened.

And who would step out but Rafael.

Ratchet stared at Raf for several long moments. The human was fine, taking in Cybertron's toxic air as if it was Earth's. The medic slowly stood, expecting to clean up splattered organs and pieces of human boy-child. But Raf was staring at him with bright blue eyes. Raf had brown eyes on Earth.

"Rafael?" He frowned at the child. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd visit."

The GroundBridge closed and Ratchet sighed in relief. Had Miko assumed she was some kind of super-human...

Then Ratchet's attention turned back to Raf. Raf plus Cybertron's air does not equal explosive human?

"Why are you not exploding?"

"Oh, that. Well, I cut my finger the other day..." Raf held up a Band-Aid and Ratchet immediately shied away from the disgusting thing, but then he saw what had required his attention.

Purple blood.

Red plus blue equals purple.

Ratchet frowned. "Looks like...Energon."

"And blood," Raf finished as he looked at the Band-Aid. "So I did some research."

This is why he liked Raf, Ratchet thought as he settled on his berth. Raf sat on the floor.

"You lost a sparkling. Several thousand years later, I'm found in a field."

Ratchet frowned. While Raf might have been able to connect the dots, Ratchet could not. He just stared at the little human. First, he runs into Ratchet's MedBay. Then he doesn't explode. Now he has purple blood and is somehow connected to Glyph?

Raf pulled a newspaper article out of his backpack and held it up for Ratchet to scan. The picture was circled in red, so Ratchet focused on that. It was a picture of a Cybertronian pod with the phrase _**Protect and Serve**_ , the Autobot motto at the time, etched into it by someone's frantic servo.

Ratchet's frantic servo.

He looked at Raf and his optics dimmed. "All this time, I mourned a child that I thought I had lost, and he was under my care."

Raf smiled slightly at him, blinking when Ratchet scooped him up.

"It all makes sense. Your Amalgami coding must have been activated and you took on the appearance of the top predator: Humans." Ratchet held him against his chest. "You can stay here...and learn how to use your coding..."

Raf looked up at him. "Ratchet, you'd know I'd love to. But I have my own family now, still, remember? I can't just _leave_ them, but I can stop by every so often..."

Ratchet nodded a bit, sighing as he set the human child back down. "I'll open a Bridge for you to go back home...how did you even get here?"

Raf tapped his head as he walked to the spiralling vortex that was to take him back to Earth. "My sire taught me how to build a SpaceBridge from scratch."

Ratchet watched him, smiling weakly as the Bridge closed, and while he found out his son had not perished, he felt emptier than he had before.

He walked to the window and watched the Star Saber where it was buried in the ground in front of the Well. Red and blue ribbons fluttered slightly and Ratchet's spark pulsed for his leader, for his son, for his family.

"Primus why!?" He shoved away from the window and went back to his desk to break something and rebuild it.

 _Time heals all wounds, Ratchet..._

He ignored the whispers, but some part of him was soothed by Optimus' favorite phrase.

 **This was kinda rushed because, for one, I'm sick, and might be staying home tomorrow DX Also, I feel like I'm lagging in the story-posting department. I'm sorry there's been nothing new for a long time, but I've been busy sneezing my brain cells out and popping a capsule every 4 hours. (I got the whole deal, by the way: Runny/stuffy nose, sore throat, upset tummy, headaches... So cyber-hugs is a must 3)**

 **Hope you like it and hope it satisfies you, Lazy Chipmunk.**

 **Still interested in story ideas!**


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